AVL, Red Bull Advanced Tech partner to develop high-power density fuel cells

Technology firms AVL and Red Bull Advanced Technologies (RBAT) have announced their collaboration to to develop the next generation of "ultra-high-power density" fuel cell technology meant for sustainable hydrogen-powered propulsion systems in automotive, motorsport and aviation segments. 

The companies claim that the lightweight solutions that they plan to develop are expected to be two-thirds lighter than conventional fuel cell systems, thereby enabling wider adoption of the hydrogen fuel cell technology in high-performance applications of the said industries. 

The collaboration combines AVL's industry leading portfolio of PEM fuel cell technology and Red Bull's winning technologies and novel methodologies in lightweight design, construction, and aerodynamics, they add. RBAT is the the high-performance engineering arm of Red Bull Racing Group. 

Rob Gray, Technical Director, Red Bull Advanced Technologies, commented, "We are delighted to be working with AVL on this collaboration to increase fuel cell power density and thus improve performance. It goes to show how beneficial the application of cutting edge F1 inspired engineering can be with solving real-world problems."

"We are very proud to be working closely with Red Bull. This partnership will combine the knowledge and experience of our experts, allowing us to improve the gravimetric power density of our fuel cell technology by a factor of three and hence meet the requirements of high-performance applications like aviation and racing", said Jürgen Rechberger, Vice President, AVL. 

The project is expected to deliver a fuel cell system for high performance application that exceeds those currently available globally. The companies aim for dramatic improvements in gravimetric power density of about 6kW/kg on stack level and 2kW/kg on fuel cell system level. 

The partners further note that the technology has the potential to result in the world's highest gravimetric power density PEM fuel cell system. This can help those applications involving maximum payloads to have the power density figures required in hydrogen mobility.